Castro Halloween — early 90s

I was in the Street Patrol from fall 1990 until sometime in late 1992 or early 1993, and this was a way for me to attend Castro Halloween without having to dress in costume (though the SP did have a uniform of sorts: a Street Patrol t-shirt, usually worn with a leather jacket, and a fuscia beret). About a dozen of us marched two-by-two through the party, and especially around the edges where bashers might target a lone pedestrian, from about 9 pm until the last stragglers had departed — way after 3 a.m. It was crowded, exciting, exhausting and, as it got later and later and the number of drunks grew larger and drunker, a pain in the ass.

I remember one exciting moment when we did apprehend a psychopath who was brandishing what turned out to be a screwdriver. But to tell you the truth, most of the protecting we did was protecting the drunks from themselves or each other. They would get in stupid fights — it wasn’t gay-bashing so much as two or three drunken queers jabbing at each other — and we would break the fights up. I also like to think that our presence discouraged some gay bashing.
A longer post about the Street Patrol is on my own blog Too Beautiful.

1 Comment so far

why are some ppl’s lives so sad that they have to go out on the biggest party night of the year, drive clear across the bay bridge in traffic, just to hate on some peeps having a great time livin’ it up? whatever there are always the losers in society. Last year wasn’t bad at all though, hopefully tonight is a good one as well.